1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to telephony and, more particularly, to methods and systems for assembling real time telephone line records.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most residential and business telephone customers are connected to telephone systems by copper cables and wires. These copper cables are the familiar one or more telephone lines running throughout nearly every home in the United States. Because copper cable and wire connects each home, and many businesses, to the telephone system, the Public Switched Telephone Network is composed of billions of copper cables and wires. Each of these copper cables must be maintained to provide superior telephone service to the customer.
Yet maintaining these copper cables and wires is an extraordinary task. The Public Switched Telephone Network, with its billions of copper cables and wires, may receive hundreds of maintenance calls per day. Copper cables and wires, for example, are strung from telephone poles, buried underground, and installed within walls and floors of buildings, so a single cable fault may require several trained technicians and special equipment. Construction crews and demolition crews can inadvertently severe telephone service to hundreds, even thousands, of customers. Storms, floods, and other natural disasters can interrupt telephone service and require thousands of man-hours. Even exposure to ozone, summer heat, winter cold, and water deteriorates and degrades the copper cable and wires. The public telephone system, therefore, with its billions of copper telephone lines, requires a structured maintenance plan to ensure telephone customers receive the highest quality telephone service.
One obstacle to implementing a structured maintenance plan is accurate telephone line records. Telephone line records should accurately describe a customer's telephone service, the condition of telephone system physical facility, and the telephone equipment installed at the customer's residence or business. When a customer calls to report a telephone problem, accurate line records help identify the problem and speed resolution. Telephone line records, however, are often outdated with incorrect information. This incorrect information often hampers maintenance efforts.
Telephone line records are often incorrect because of a manual environment. Telephone line records are maintained in static databases that require manual updating. Whenever telephone line records are to be updated, someone must manually enter the updated information. Although these manual updates may be performed on a regular basis, the millions of updates can require hundreds of man-hours. The telephone line records then rarely reflect current information. These manual updates are also prone to human error, so even timely information may be erroneously entered. This manual environment is also obviously expensive. The telephone line records, therefore, often represent outdated, irrelevant information, and inaccurate telephone line records hamper implementation of a structured maintenance plan.
There is, accordingly, a need in the art for dynamically assembling line records that reduce the need for manual updates, that are faster and more accurate than current implementations, and that are less expensive to operate and to maintain.